Online Education Can Make Us Better Teachers
Marie K Norman
University of Pittsburgh
Keywords: learning research, online learning, pedagogy, elearning, cognitive science
Abstract
We now have over 30 years of research on learning and cognition to draw from as educators. Yet it’s surprising how little impact learning research has had on classroom practice in higher education. Why is this the case? Is it possible that online education is better positioned than its on-site counterpart to bring learning research to bear on teaching?
In this presentation, we’ll discuss ways in which the affordances and limitations of online education can push us toward more lively, imaginative, research-based teaching practices—not just online but face-to-face as well.
We’ll talk about four powerful ways that learning research can inform teaching and examine how online education is particularly well-suited to bring this research into practice. We’ll consider examples of courses that use key learning principles and brainstorm ways to put learning research to work in our own teaching contexts.
By the end of the session, you should be able to:
- Identify insights from learning research you can leverage to create dynamic and effective courses
- Explain why online courses are well positioned to use learning research (and why face-to-face courses can be too!).
- Identify examples of creative online courses.
- Brainstorm ways to bring learning research to bear in your own teaching, whether online or off.
Please get in touch if you'd like more information or would like to share your thoughts about the presentation: mkn17@pitt.edu
Author Biography
Marie K Norman, University of Pittsburgh
Dr. Marie Norman is an associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Medicine. Norman has taught anthropology for over 20 years and worked in faculty development for 13 years, the last three focused on online education. She is coauthor of the book How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching.
